Indian Raita recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is Indian raita made of? ›

Raita is a side dish in Indian cuisine made of dahi (yogurt, often referred to as curd) together with raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, or in the case of boondi raita, with fried droplets of batter made from besan (chickpea flour, generally labeled as gram flour).

Raita is a side dish from Indian Cuisine, made with yogurt, spices, herbs, vegetables and sometimes even with fruits. It is an integral part of Indian meal menus. Call it what you like – raita, pachadi, curd dip, or the Indian cousin of Greek tzatziki, this yogurt condiment is healthy and adaptable.

Raita Should Be Thin

Unlike the thick yogurt-based dip that a raita is often thought to be, an Indian raita is more liquidy. It's made with fresh yogurt or curd that hasn't rested in the refrigerator for too long, or that hasn't been strained like Greek yogurt.

Raita can be as simple as dressing up plain yogurt with salt and spices, or it can be loaded with herbs, fruits, raw or cooked vegetables, chickpeas, and even boiled potatoes. Raita can be thin and light—ideal alongside rice dishes and curries—or thick and chunky—perfect for scooping up with roti and naan.

What is Raita eaten with? It can be eaten with all different kinds of Indian food like pulao, curries, vegetable dishes, rice dishes and naan bread, paratha, or roti. I also love to use it as a dip for pita chips or kebabs.

What Type of Yogurt do We Use in Indian Cooking? Commonly, Indian people use yogurt in cooking. This type is called 'Dahi,' which uses Indian cuisine. It adds a creamy and light texture to the dishes without weighing them down.

Serve right away or store in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.

Raita is a side dish from India while tzatziki is a Greek sauce. Both are eaten as dips or as an accompaniment to a main dish. Their consistencies are different. Raita is made with plain yogurt and tzatziki is made with thicker Greek yogurt.

Raita is prepared using curd, which is high in protein and low in unhealthy fats. It makes for a perfect aid for digestion and weight loss. Losing weight is not an easy task. It requires a lot of efforts in terms of eating healthy, and also engaging in various physical activities.

Raita can be served as a dip or a side dish. In the latter case, it is easiest to view it as a salad. In India, people snack on raita between courses to cool the mouth, or they mix it first with rice before eating it with a curry.

Can you eat raita plain? ›

Raita can also be deployed beyond Indian cuisine. You can eat it by itself as a savory yogurt snack; you can use it as a marinade for chicken; you can serve it as a side or topping to any hearty dish in need of a light accompaniment—lamb chops, fried things, stuffed breads, roasted vegetables.

South Indians eat more curd/yoghurt than the rest of us. But they like it for itself. The nearest you get to raita in the South is pachdi, which may be of Tamil origin. (In Andhra and Telangana, pachdi is often just a chutney without dahi.)

Biryani, a fragrant rice dish cooked with aromatic spices and tender meat or vegetables, can be paired with a cooling raita. Biryani contains carbohydrates that aid in the production of tryptophan, while the yogurt-based raita provides calcium, which helps the brain convert tryptophan into melatonin.

Onion raita is a popular Raita variety often made & served in the South Indian homes and restaurants. It is always eaten with a biryani, pulao and also with kurma & meat dishes. It is also known as perugu pachadi or perugu chutney in Telugu & Thayir pachadi in Tamil.

At its core, raita is yogurt that's been mixed with a little bit of sugar, spices, and oftentimes vegetables and other textural components. When done right, raita has an addictive salty-sweet quality to it—it's the cooling foil to all of the hearty, warm spice-laden flavors of many Indian dishes.

A basic raita recipe is made of salted yoghurt, chopped onion, coriander, mint and ground or whole cumin seeds. It has a salty, sour, savoury taste that is also cooling and refreshing.